The St. Louis Rams (5-7) are coming to town this weekend and they are going to present a bigger challenge to the Washington Redskins (3-9) than thought earlier in the season. St. Louis has got to be feeling good after a dominant win over the Oakland Raiders last week.They are playing very consistently on offense, defense and special teams. The Redskins need to focus and focus hard on game plan, technique and fundamentals in order to compete in every phase of the game. They need to shut out the media and the world and play for each other.
Whatever weaknesses Washington’s offense has will be gladly exposed by former Redskins defensive coordinator Gregg Williams who, now in the same position with the Rams, is returning to Washington and, with the way he was let go after Joe Gibbs retired, he’ll be happy to leave here with a win. Here’s a scary a little factoid to chew on: Williams’ defense recently limited Denver Broncos’ quarterback Peyton Manning to the lowest scoring day he’s ever had with his team in a 22-7 St. Louis victory. No other team has held the 13-time Pro Bowler to just one touchdown in a game since he has been in Denver.
The Redskins’ offensive line must contend with veteran defensive tackle Robert Quinn and rookie Aaron Donald, both of whom are great pass rushers and bring it hard. The two of them have an amazing 15 sacks between them so far (Quinn has nine, Donald six) this season. Happily for the Rams, defensive end Chris Long is back for his second game after being on IR (ankle injury) sustained in the Rams’ first game of the season. Having recorded double-digit sacks a couple of years in a row in the past, Long is going back to a dangerous defense made even scarier for the Redskins with his return. Washington’s starting quarterback Colt McCoy is going to have to get rid of the ball quickly and decisively if the team has any chance of competing against St. Louis’ defensive front.
“St. Louis has a great defense,” McCoy said this week. “They always have the last several years. I played in their division last year, and it was always a headache. Those guys come at you from all different directions and they have got a great front four who can get pressure on the passer. And their blitz packages on third down are probably the best in the league. We definitely have our hands full with them this week.”
“We understand how good they are,” he also said, “and it’s going to take a good week of preparation for us to be ready for them.”
The Rams’ second-year linebacker Alec Ogletree (the Rams 2013 first-round pick, one of the several traded to the Rams to get Griffin) seems to be thriving under Williams. He has 81 tackles this season (68 solo), 11 of which he made last week against the Raiders. He has two forced fumbles and two interceptions on the year. In 2013 had over 100 tackles. In the aforementioned game against the Broncos, the linebacker knocked away two passes and came away with a pick.
The Rams’ secondary contains a bunch of ball-hawks. Cornerback E.J. Gaines, a rookie, has two interceptions on the season. He leads the team with 13 passes defended. Janoris Jenkins has five career interceptions for touchdowns and recorded a pick-six for 99 yards in Week 12.
Safety T.J. McDonald blocked a punt against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and had 17 tackles against the Philadelphia Eagles.
St. Louis’ quarterback Shaun Hill is managing the game well and distributing the ball, much like McCoy does for the Redskins. A 13-year veteran, Hill has passed for 7,063 yards with 45 touchdowns and 26 interceptions. Linebackers Ryan Kerrigan, Trent Murphy and linemen Jason Hatcher — IF he plays… he was listed as questionable on Friday’s injury report — and Barry Cofield really need to finally get some push going in this game if they are going to shake Hill at all. The backfield is where those guys need to end up a majority of the time.
Rams’ running back Tre Mason has rushed for 562 yards this season on 122 runs for a 4.6 yards-per-carry average and last week against Oakland he banged out an 89-yard haul for a touchdown. Fortunately, the Redskins defense is pretty good against the run but that’s only a small part of the solution to the problems the St. Louis presents.
“They’ve got a lot of weapons,” Washington’s defensive coordinator Jim Haslett said about the Rams’ offense, “really good receivers, [an] athletic line [and the] quarterback does a good job of managing the game. He’s not going to screw it up.”
Any success the defense has against the Rams will frequently depend on how Haslett deals with his secondary and how they respond. Second-year safety Phillip Thomas will play for the injured Brandon Meriweather and he said this week he has had a good week of practice. With the problems in that defensive backfield, Haslett has said he will keep it simple. This is likely in the hopes that this will help them to just play without having to think too much. With such youngsters there — cornerback Bashaud Breeland is a rookie and David Amerson is in his second year — maybe this will work.
The Redskins’ defense (in particular the secondary) will need to execute whatever assignment they have so that Rams’ wide outs Kenny Britt (28 catches, 490 yards and three TDs this season), the shifty Tavon Austin (24 catches, 186 yards receiving, 25 runs, 144 yards, 5.8 ypc average and two rushing TDs) and Stedman Bailey (who had his first 100-yard game against the Raiders last week) don’t all look like Pro Bowlers by the end of the game. Tight end Jared Cook (37 catches, 473 yards, one TD) must be accounted for as well.
Football X’s and O’s are what head coach Jay Gruden, his staff and the players need to concentrate on right now if they want any chance at all Sunday against a St. Louis Rams team that is getting better and better. Let’s hope that’s what they do.
Hail.